Azure Bonds
1988 novel by Kate Novak
Azure Bonds is a 380-page paperback fantasy novel written by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb, with cover art by Clyde Caldwell, and published by TSR Inc. in 1988. It is the first novel of the Finder’s Stone Trilogy which is set within the world of the Forgotten Realms. It served as the basis for the computer game, Curse of the Azure Bonds. One of the co-authors, Jeff Grubb, stated that of the novels he has written, Azure Bonds is one of his favorites.
Development
In 1984, while Jeff Grubb was managing the Forgotten Realms setting: "I had a concept for a novel that mixed sword-and-sorcery with mystery and personal discovery - the tale of a woman who wakes up one morning with no knowledge of her immediate past and a set of strange tattoos on her arms. I laid out the novel one night to my wife, Kate Novak, while we were driving from Lake Geneva [Wisconsin] to Milwaukee. By the time we got there, I had a co-writer".
Plot
The trilogy's titular "finder's stone" plays a relatively limited role and has an essentially introductory presence in the novel.
The story begins with the main character, an adventurer named Alias, awakening in a disoriented and amnesic state.
“Azure Bonds” enters the record as 1988 novel by Kate Novak. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Azure, Bonds and novel can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Azure Bonds” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Azure, Bonds and novel provides the most credible route into that argument.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4833093. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1988 and 1984.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Azure Bonds” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.